Soulmates 1: Lost and Found
by Nighteyes27
Summary: What happens when two formerly close friends meet again? Starts directly after X-Men #110, stars Shadowcat


Soulmates 1: Lost and Found  
  
Summary: Kicking off the Soulmates arc, what happens when two friends, who each thought the other lost forever, find their way back to one another?  
  
Rating: This one should probably be around PG-13 for language and f/f and semi-f/f relationships mentioned.  
  
Author's Notes: First of all, this is my first stab at the MU, so constructive criticism welcomed-drop me a line at MegCA86@aol.com. Now, this takes place literally after the last page of X-Men #110. St. John Allerdyce (Pyro), Moira MacTaggert and Peter Rasputin (Colossus) are newly dead from the Legacy Virus and Kitty is at college somewhere, having resigned from the X-Men. I haven't followed Shadowcat's love life all that much, so if I omit anyone who she had a thing with, please drop me an E-mail. Also, I've read almost nothing with Britannic-so tell me if I characterize him wrong. There's another author's note at the end-please read it. The disclaimer is at the end.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Kitty Pryde stretched. Composing the letter to the X-Men and Professor Xavier was heart-wrenching and very difficult, for her. They were her surrogate family and it hurt to say good-bye.  
Tortured, gentle brown eyes were complemented by brown hair the same shade. She heard *something* pop in her back, winced at the momentary flash of pain, and then stretched again. Her thoughts wandered to last night's martial arts workout, and that led her mind back to the letter.  
'I wish I had at least been able to say good-bye to Kurt, Ororo and Logan....' her thought trailed off. There was no possible way to do this and see her old mentors-slash-surrogate parents again. 'If I see them, I know I'll break down. I *know* it. I won't be able to leave. Plus, I'm not so sure that Ororo, at least, won't try and convince me to stay. And that...that would be horrendous. Either I would buckle under the pressure, and stay-which would get someone killed-or I would end up leaving, probably in a huff, fighting with Ororo, my last memories of her angry and hurt. No. I refuse to do that. It's best that I just remain with the good memories I have now.'  
'Yeah, Pryde, *good* memories,' a little voice in the back of her head said. 'Sharing her with Yukio, the X-Men, then Dallas...? Yeah, Pryde, *good* memories.'  
And yet, somehow, her heart was being a pain and wouldn't listen to her rational arguments about why she couldn't see them *one* last time.  
Speaking of hearts.... Her thoughts turned to the men in her life. She uttered a sharp, short laugh. 'I'm bad luck, right? Best stay away from the X-Men anyway.'  
The only men who had ever showed any interest in her were dead. Alistaire Stuart had never showed any *real* interest in her. Doug Ramsey, killed on active duty within the New Mutants. Larry Bodine, suicide. Pete Wisdom, her most serious paramour and first lover-shot in the head while leading his wannabe hardcore black ops team, the revamped X-Force, against some psycho in California. Alasdhair Kinross-the two had been time-crossed semi-lovers, he died during WWII. Seth-boy, what a bad judgment *that* had turned out to be. 'Falling for with a man who tried to kill your team isn't exactly conductive to a relationship.' And Peter Rasputin, her first serious crush, now dead. Suicide, dying a martyr.   
'Maybe it's evil of me,' Kitty thought, but unable to stop her thoughts, 'but I would trade the killing cure for Legacy for one that doesn't kill a hundred times over, even if it means more people would die, to have Peter back. Is it wrong of me? He was a part of my life for so long, it's so weird to have him gone. Him and Pete, as well. Every day, I wake up expecting Pete to walk in with breakfast, or I wake up suddenly at a knock, because I expect it's Peter rapping on my door to drive him to town to buy paints because he has no license and ran out.'   
'God, I can't even keep good friends. Magik died during Inferno, saving the world. Illyana Rasputin died a short while later. Ray sacrificed herself to become Mother Askani and mentor Cable, bringing Captain Britain-or "Britanic"- back to our time. You know, even after-what is it-like a year and a half, two years-I still wish Ray were here instead of Brian.'  
Her mind skipped back to almost immediately after Britanic had "returned" to their time. He and Meggan had been sitting in the dining room, alone. The members of Excalibur and Daytripper had sensed that Meggan and Britanic should be alone, and had decided to go into London for a day. Kitty had politely declined, claiming that she had to check out the Midnight Runner and the Muir Island computers and safety system...claiming they didn't know the effect of Amanda's spells on the computers. Which she had done. It had taken all of...oh, ten minutes. Then she had stalked down the corridors. She didn't even realize that she was at the dining room until she was knocking on the door and requesting of Meggan to speak to Britanic alone.  
Meggan had just as politely tried to decline Kitty. But Britanic had just looked at her with eerie eyes and said that he would be all right, that Kitty really needed something. Meggan, looking suspicious and worried, had flown out.  
Kitty had swiveled slowly to look at Britanic. He had regarded her quietly. Tears sprang to her eyes, but she clenched her jaw. A credit to Logan's training, she suppressed her emotions. "You will never be Brian!" she hissed. "If you put one...single...toe out of line I will hurt you very, very, badly. Rachel wasn't worth a stranger."  
"I'm sorry Rachel had to sacrifice herself, but I had no choice," Britanic had tried to interject. "I am *trying* to save the world, and this was the *only* way!"  
"I *doubt* that!" Kitty snapped back. "She was *happy* here! You could've just told her the information, but *you* were too selfish! You wanted Meggan back as your love slave and Betsy as your keeper! So you forced Ray to give up the only peace she'd ever known-and *don't* try to deny that you coerced her!"  
Britanic had flinched, as every accusation had hit him hard, and he had to admit, there was a grain of truth in Shadowcat's words. His jaw had clenched, but he had looked compassionate. He had tried to reach out and cup her jaw, put she had jerked violently away. His hand fell to his side, hurt.  
"Again, Kitty, I apologize. I know how *you* felt about her. And what you meant to *her*."  
"You know nothing about me," Kitty snapped in a low voice. Tears overflowed from her eyes now, and she left with one final threat. "If you do *anything* to hurt Excalibur, the X-Men, or *anyone* I care about-purposefully or otherwise- I *will* hold you accountable. And the debt *will* be paid in full."  
Leaving through the door, she had coldly shaken off Meggan by first ignoring her, then by phasing into her room and locking the door. When she was sure Meggan had left, she had curled up with Lockheed and one of Rachel's sleep shirts. She had buried her nose into it and cried her heart out to the little dragon, who had cooed, trying to comfort her as best he was able.  
Her mind skipped back even further, to the night before Jean and Scott's wedding (she suddenly realized, that if Cable knew the Mother Askani well, it was no wonder he had been watching them intensely!). She and Rachel had gone to the local pub, and, while not legally drunk, were probably about halfway there.  
They had stumbled into the room. Arguing about some little thing-Kitty didn't even remember what-they had gotten into a playful shoving match. Suddenly, Ray had tripped over some of Kitty's computer manuals. She had landed on the bed, on her back, laughing. Unfortunately, Kitty had been shoving her at the precise moment when it would be perfect to fall. Kitty lost her balance, and almost fell on Rachel, too tipsy, confused, and laughing too hard to safely phase.  
Cool TK hands had gripped her about an inch away from falling onto Rachel. Laughing, she had looked into Rachel's eyes, but the amusement of both had fallen away as they each saw something in each other. Kitty had unconsciously licked her lips as the air between them became charged with tension. Rachel, seeing this, had swallowed hard, and exhaled nervously. Both were suddenly aware of how close their bodies actually were.  
The moment had been ruined when Kurt had knocked on their door. "Lights out, frauleins. Kitty, can I talk to you for a minute?"  
Kitty drew in a breath. "In a minute, fuzzy elf," she called hoarsely. Rachel's TK had gently set her on her feet. Kitty had just stood there, swallowing, jaw moving, as she and Rachel stared at each other. Finally, Kitty broke the tableau by phasing though the door.  
When she got back, Rachel had been asleep, and though she knew they had both meant to talk about what happened-for things, they both knew, could never be the same-they hadn't found the time to do so. There were some...interesting moments at the wedding, then they had gotten back...and hadn't really talked about what had happened. Then Rachel had been lost to the timestream.  
She remembered, even earlier, after they had returned from the jaunt into the past where they first chronologically met Mystique, her lover Destiny (whose diary Kitty had and had left for Rogue and Wolverine), and Logan himself. Rachel had acted strangely for a while. Kitty had attributed it to remaining influences of the Shadow King. Now, with 20/20 hindsight, she realized that Rachel had been stunned and hurt that Kitty was capable of killing her, and possibly more than a little jealous of Alasdhair. 'Kate Pryde and Ray? I wonder....'  
Her last memory was of Ray telling Kitty to hold her and say hello when born in this timeline.  
'And let's not even *think* about you and Illyana's "friendship," Pryde!' Kitty told herself. 'Although I do have to wonder how much of your so-called relationship with Piotr was really a way to remain close with Illyana and her family,' her conscience whispered.   
'That's not fair,' she whispered. She could still *feel* the hurt, sharp as if it had been yesterday, when he had told her it was over. She could *taste* their last kiss on her lips, even after years.  
'Aha,' her head mocked her again. 'But you can still taste Illyana's kiss, no? You can still feel her breath on your face-still feel the feel of her hands on your body, the feeling of sweaty skin against sweaty skin, the luxurious times when you would share a bed, curled together, and your mutual dependence on the other. And you can still *feel* the electricity that coursed through you whenever she touched you, or the passion that one night-'  
'Don't *go* there, Pryde,' she told herself as a knock on her door brought her out of her nostalgia.  
"Kitty!" her friend George Brossar walked in without waiting for a sign that he could enter. George was tall-6'0-lithe, and muscular. He had dark skin, darker than Ororo's, piercing light blue eyes and midnight black hair. As a sophomore, he was the starting catcher for the varsity baseball team, and a second-string halfback on the JV football team, and was also extremely smart-though not in Kitty's range, they took many of the same classes together. They formed a two-person study group often-simply because no one else could understand some of the complexities of the courses they were taking. But there were no sparks between them-besides, he was already taken.  
"Let's grab some pizza, Pryde!" he said exuberantly. "You've been working on that blasted letter-when it's break, no less!-all day. You need a vacation."  
Kitty grinned, unable to be non-infected be his enthusiasm. "Why're you so excited, George?" she queried him. "And by the way, yeah, sure, pizza. I was done anyway," and she stuck her head under the desk, searching for envelopes and stamps. 'Aha! There they are! I knew I put the little buggers in here somewhere!'  
"Weeeeeeelllll...." George drawled. "My parents-"   
"Who happen to be millionaires?" Kitty amusedly injected.  
George stuck his tongue out at her. "Well, they bought me a car."  
Kitty's jaw dropped. "A *car*?" she repeated. A stray thought- 'Wish *my* parents were like that!' made her miss the next part of his speech.  
"Sorry, George, I blanked out. What?"  
"I said," he repeated, with a put-upon air that made Kitty lightly sock him, "It's a dark blue Jeep Wrangler."  
"Well, let's go!" Kitty said. She had recently discovered that she had a thing for Jeeps-and sometimes the guys who owned them, as Seth proved. Licking the envelope and the stamp, she grabbed her blazer, tossed it on, and followed George out of her room. On the way out of the dorm, she stuffed the letter into the post box.  
Shutting the lid to the post box, she felt-something-stir in her. Climbing into the Jeep, she tried to dissect her emotions. 'Relief-it's over. Getting out is what I've wanted for a long time. Sadness-well, what could I expect? The X-Men were a big part of my life for so long, I cannot be expected to just leave and not care. I'm glad that the burden of saving the world every other week is off my shoulders-but I also feel...like I'm neglecting a responsibility? Well, I've been responsible to the world for long enough, and didn't get anything out of it. All I got was pain. I want to be normal for a while-it's my right. I'm no born superhero. Like that girl said in Center Stage, "What about what I want?" So, in conclusion? I'll be glum for a while, but I'll live. After all, it's not as if I haven't seen-and *done*- much worse.'  
George pulled the Jeep into the student parking lot of the Pizza Place and studied her with his pale fox-eyes. He leaned over and gently touched her forearm. 'Jeez, I must look like I'm gonna rabbit.' "You all right, Kitty? I've never seen you so ... on-edge."  
"I'm fine, George," Kitty said, pulling her arm away, resisting the temptation to phase through him. "I just...mailed a really important letter. And I'm just a little down about it-I made a big decision, and you can never help second guessing those."  
"I can't tell you if you made the right decision, Kitty. Only you will know. But I've got faith in you. In the meantime, let's go see Sarai. She always cheers me up," he smirked.  
"Gee, maybe that's 'cause she's your girlfriend?" Kitty shot back. At 5'10, built like an actress, Asian ethnicity, dark brown hair and chocolate eyes, she was a looker, as was he. And they were so into puppy dog love it wasn't funny. Getting out of the car, she looked around. "Funny. I don't see her Lexus anywhere."  
"She had to pick up a new student at the Student Center," George explained. "A girl. Guidance picked her for orientation because of the fact that she's a junior and a model student and a cheerleader and all of that. Speaking of which, have you got a new roommate?"  
"No," Kitty grimaced. Her last roommate had transferred to another college, and Kitty had been living solo for the past few months. "And I'm not looking forward to it, either. My luck, it'll be some airhead blonde who's here because Daddy's an alumni."  
With that grim thought in mind, she walked in. George followed, laughing uproariously. The first day of their philosophy class, he had learned exactly *what*she thought of people like *that*.  
An airhead blonde had been in their philosophy class by mistake. Almost stereotypically racist, stuck-up and self-centered, she had assumed that when Kitty and George were laughing together at a joke, they were laughing at her.   
(Actually, George had just hit Kitty with a line from the previous night's episode of Buffy that was so totally appropriate for the class neither could hold in the laughter.)  
She had sauntered over, slapped Kitty hard, and made some crack about Kitty being a disgrace to her race.  
George had flushed bright red and his jaw clenched. The teacher had heard and was pale and furious. Kitty, however, topped them all. She had *needed* some release since she had left the station.  
She had stood up and hit the bitch with an uppercut that sent her reeling back off the floor-using only a fraction of her full strength. She had proceeded to twist the girl's arm around her and terrify her. As the poor girl had hurried out of the room, Kitty had let a low growl out.  
The class looked quickly away, but it had gained a new respect for her. George hadn't said anything-he hadn't needed to. His eyes said it all.  
She had been hit with a slap on the wrist for it-probation. If you went by Kitty's grades prior to that moment, she had nothing to worry about. And she hadn't. The first term was over, the school year half done, and she was on break for a glorious month.  
Though she could laugh about it in hindsight, at the time she had privately thanked Logan for his teachings-without them, she could've killed the girl. Later that night, she had broken three punching bags at the gym and beat up some blowhard jerks badly.  
They strolled over to a table and took it, making sure there were two extra seats-they both knew that because Sarai was a friendly person, she would most likely invite the new frosh to come and have pizza with her, her boyfriend, and another freshman. It was a smart move-Sarai was a junior, but George and Kitty were a sophomore and freshman, respectively, and it made sense for a freshman to meet other underclassmen.  
"Hey, maybe she'll be your roommate!" George said, half-seriously. Kitty rolled her eyes. She and her former roommate had had a rocky friendship-Jessie had been a workaholic and had resented both the fact that Kitty could go out and party and it wouldn't affect her grades, and the fact that when the first fact led to inevitable confrontations, Kitty usually won.  
"As long as she's not like Jessie, I'll live," Kitty said seriously.  
'Speaking of roomies...' Kitty's thoughts trailed off. Thoughts of Illyana and Rachel no longer were spears, evoking hot pain. Somehow, thoughts of her two lost friends no longer hurt as badly as they had when they were freshly gone-it was just a dull ache now, in her chest.  
"Sarai's here!" George exulted. Standing up, he waved eagerly to his girlfriend, who was trailed by a girl.  
Kitty stopped breathing.  
Her eyes traveled up from the fashionable hiking boots, up to the tight jeans, across the long sleeved, ribbed black turtleneck to the newcomer's face. Full red lips perched under a small nose. Intense green eyes sat under dark brows and was framed and complemented by flame-red hair.  
Kitty's jaw dropped, as did the "stranger"'s. Kitty said one word.  
"Rachel?"   
Then, in front of the bemused eyes of George, Sarai and Rachel Summers-also known in another time and place as a Hound, Phoenix, or the Mother Askani- Kitty Pryde, formerly of the X-Men, fainted dead away.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Author's Notes: The inspiration for this story came about when I thought that it was extremely weird that Cable and Rachel agreed to not tell Jean and Kitty that Rachel had returned. Those two, at least, deserved to know-for obvious reasons. And I also find it extremely odd that Cable didn't tell Rachel that Kitty's missing-I mean, they were best friends. And I doubt that he himself doesn't know Kitty's missing (I haven't been reading UXM lately). And Rachel not getting in touch with Kitty and Jean is just really out-of-character, the way I see it. Kitty and Jean will be pissed off and hurt when they *do* find out, and Rachel knows this-and Rachel is not a cruel person.  
  
Disclaimer: Kitty 'Shadowcat' Pryde, Rachel 'Phoenix' Summers, and all other X-related characters don't belong to me, they belong to Marvel (which is probably a good thing for them). No copyright infringement or offense intended. I'm making no money off of this. However, the plot belongs to me, as do George Brossar and Sarai Dorvel.


End file.
